Trump again calls Comey a 'slimeball' in flurry of furious tweets

Donald Trumphit out again at “slimeball” James Comey on Sunday with a characteristic flurry of furious early-morning tweets in which he also reiterated his concerns over the raid on the offices of his lawyer Michael Cohen.Comey – whom Trump fired as director of the FBI in May last year because of his investigation into “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia” – is about to release a book about working for Trump, A Higher Loyalty, advance extracts from which have enraged the president. Comey will appear on Sunday night on ABC in his first televised interview to promote the book.A Higher Loyalty review: Comey is unsparing in his disgust at Trump

Read moreIn his tweets on Sunday morning, Trump predicted that “slippery” Comey would “go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far”, claimed he was “not smart”, and took issue with several points raised by Comey in his book.“Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe,” the president wrote on Twitter, a reference to Comey’ssuggestionin A Higher Loyalty that his decision to reopen the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was influenced by a belief the Democratic candidate was going to win the 2016 election.“Assuming, as nearly everyone did, that Hillary Clinton would be elected president of the United States in less than two weeks, what would happen to the FBI, the justice department or her own presidency if it later was revealed, after the fact, that she still was the subject of an FBI investigation?” Comey asks in the book.“In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job,” wrote Trump on Sunday. “Slimeball!”Asked about this section of his book in aclipfrom the upcoming ABC interview released on Saturday, Comey said: “I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and so I’m sure that it was a factor.”He added: “I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been, that she’s going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out.”Trump also rattled through a series of questions he said were not answered in what he called “Comey’s badly reviewed book”: “How come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn’t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe’s $700,000 & more?”Comey's book swipes at Trump – but Mueller's inquiry is the real threat

Read moreComey said during congressional testimony last year that he helped to leak details of a memo about Trump to the New York Times, but hedeniedthat it contained classified information.“McCabe’s $700,000” refers to money given to the Virginia state senate campaign of Jill McCabe, the wife of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe from groups associated with Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, an ally of Clinton’s. Andrew McCabe, a frequent target of Trump’s attacks,was fired last month.Trump also claimed he had never asked for Comey’s “Personal Loyalty” – contradicting a statement the ex-FBI chief made to the Senate intelligence committee in 2017, in which Comey claimed Trump had said to him: “I need loyalty.” The president also claimed contemporaneous memos Comey says he compiled of his meetings with Trump were “self serving and FAKE”.Also weighing on Trump’s mind were the raids on the offices and home of his personal attorney Cohen, whichsome commentators have suggestedmay represent a more significant legal threat to Trump than the Russia collusion investigation that special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to lead after Comey’s firing.Repeating criticisms he made immediately after the raids, Trump lamented: “Attorney Client privilege is now a thing of the past.”And in a seeming response to reports he has had difficulty finding attorneys to represent him, the president added: “I have many (too many!) lawyers and they are probably wondering when their offices, and even homes, are going to be raided with everything, including their phones and computers, taken.“All lawyers are deflated and concerned!” he concluded.Cohen is due to appear on Monday in federal court in New York for arguments over last week’s raids. His attorneys want prosecutors ordered to temporarily halt an examination of the seized material, arguing that it is protected by attorney-client privilege.Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/15/donald-trump-calls-james-comey-slimeball